Plasma or serum marker and process for detection of cancer

This disclosures provides, in one aspect, a method for detecting non-clinically diagnosed cancer in a patient. In one embodiment, the method includes extracting blood serum or plasma from the patient, and then detecting beta-catenin RNA in the blood serum or plasma. In addition, in this embodiment, the method includes determining the presence of the cancer based on the detected beta-catenin RNA. In another aspect, this disclosure provides another embodiment of a method for detecting non-clinically diagnosed cancer in a patient. In this embodiment, the method includes extracting blood serum or plasma from the patient, and then detecting beta-catenin DNA in the blood serum or plasma. In addition, in this embodiment, the method includes determining the presence of the cancer based on the detected beta-catenin DNA. Related methods for detecting non-clinically diagnosed cancer in a patient comprising detecting beta-catenin-associated gene RNA, and beta-catenin-associated gene DNA, in the blood serum or plasma are also disclosed.